User Flows

One year into podcasting and it has been a journey. It’s been fun, enlightening, rewarding, difficult, and stress-inducing all at the same time. But overall, I’m a happier and better person for having done it.My goal for this year was to record 12 good podcasts. I ended up creating more than that. Wether or not any of them have been “good” is for you to decide. This will however be the last blog post and podcast I’ll put out this year. I’m looking forward to spending some time reflecting and just doing nothing outside of my family life and day job for a couple of months. I plan to begin recording in the second quarter of 2022 and I can’t wait to share season 2 of the User Flows Podcast with you then.So with that, I wanted to share the lessons I’ve learned in case you are interested in starting a podcast. Have a great 2022 everyone!Podcasting is easier than you think.Podcasting is a lot harder than you think.Storytelling is important.Hyperfocus.Never stop learning.Don't be afraid to share from wherever you are.You don't need a crazy work set up.You do need a quiet space.You can make a big impact in your career.Just get started.Be transparent and open with your wants.You don't have to comment on every post.It's worth giving it a try. Even if you know it's going to fail.You're going to have to dedicate way more time to this to craft something worth listening to.It's a really great way to connect with people.It's cool to have a side hustle, but make sure you get outside.You'll need to make this about something your really interested in or passionate about or you'll never last.It's okay to pivot.Helping someone else achieve something is almost a good as achieving it yourself.You can and should design your life.It's time for a break.

Okay, so I wanted to record an episode answering all the questions I've received this year from listeners and students alike. These are all fantastic questions and by answering them, I hope you get you own questions answered. Feel free to reach out to me anytime with your questions at thomasmorrel.comQuestions answered on the show:What was your journey into UX?What does a day at work look like?Have you worked with people who started out in a non-design field and transitioned over to UX/product design? What do you believe made them successful/stand out?What are some aspects of design/UX that are often overlooked by beginners, especially when starting a portfolio?Do you know of any good resources for learning more about UX/UI or for getting connected with others in the field?How did you transition from graphic designer/art director to Product Designer/UX?Do you see any shifts happening in the industry right now?How did you manage to work as a designer abroad in London?What advice would you give to someone looking to start working in UX/UI/Product Design?What are some of the things that are a pain in the UX field but are rarely talked about?

Welcome back to the UserFlows Podcast, my name is Thomas Morrell and this is a show where we talk about UX design and careers. I interview designers about their journey into the field and break down how they've been successful in their roles so we all can learn together. Today I'm joined by Shalyn Oswald.Shalyn is a UX Design Instructor at General Assembly. Which a lot of my previous guests were once students at GA. I'm very excited for this conversation.Show Highlights1:25 - Shalyn's Background in UX Design. Game Jams, and networking.2:20 Going from UX Design Student at General Assembly to becoming a UX Instructor at the same company.4:30 - Making the switch from practitioner to teacher. Acquiring greater communication skills.⭐️ 6:00 - Educating people about what I do and what I don't do. Empowering people to understand the power you have as a UX Designer. Respect it.9:12 - (Ruined by design) Ethics in Design. Giving people the system to do their job well. Technology is here to help and not to hurt and as a UX designer, you can do good or do harm.12:00 - Embracing Human-centered design from all angles.12:30 - What are the General Assembly courses all about. What does a typical experience look like? The intensity of the program. Learning to ask questions. Learning to not take feedback as a negative, but as information.15:20 - What it's like as a General Assembly instructor. Get into the weeds with your students. The personal aspect of how you learn.⭐️ 20:10 - The biggest obstacle UX students have is getting over being able to fail in order to learn. Quieting the perfectionist mindset.25:50 - Who's the right type of person for the General Assembly course? Hint: It's everyone, but you'll have to be okay with the fast pace and the pressure.30:35 - Lessons learned moving from Practitioner to Teacher. Feedback is a necessary evil both giving and taking.34:20 - What people don't quite understand about what gets taught at a boot camp. You get out of them what you put into them. You have to judge the boot camp grad and not the past performance of another grad. The same way you would judge one college grad vs another.35:40 - There is room in design for everyone. Diversity in design is about diversity in thinking, thought, understanding, humor, and more. See the value in the person and not the course.41:00 - Where they go for inspiration and information.47:00 - What's next on the horizon. A short sabbatical and then something new.49:09 - Getting in touch with Shalyn. LinkedIn and Twitter.

Welcome back to the UserFlows Podcast everyone, my name is Thomas Morrell and this is a show where we talk about UX design and careers. I interview designers and creators about their journey into the field and break down how they've been successful in their roles so we all can learn together. Today I'm joined by Jared Tredly. Now, Jared is not a designer, but he does build world-class design teams with some of the best Designers globally. Jared works with incredible companies to attract, source, and retain the best designers. From UX, UI, Product to Brand Designers, Creative Directors, and Art Directors - he's worked with every level from Grad to C-Suite. He is currently based in Brooklyn within the Bamboo Crowd US office! In addition to his day-to-day recruiting he volunteers as the USA Community Lead for the Fearless Global Design community. I had a great time speaking with Jared, I had been enjoying his content on LinkedIn. Both written and video where he discusses and dishes on the inner workings of being a Tech recruiter focused on designer recruitment specifically. I feel like I've learned a lot from him and thought he'd have a lot to share on the show. He did not disappoint. Connect with Jared: jared@bamboocrowd.com // @jaredtredly // +1 646 696 4846 Show Highlights: [1:00] About Jared and his background. [2:30] Career coaching as a recruiter. [4:40] How UX designers can set themselves up nicely for their next role. [8:05] How the process of recruitment works from the recruiter's perspective. [11:20] What to do before you turn on the "Open to work" button on LinkedIn. [13:20] How to best respond to recruiter outreach. [16:50] Is it better to be specializing or becoming a generalist these days? [18:12] What designers can do to engage a recruiter to help them land that dream role. [22:05] What companies can do to improve the recruitment process. [25:00] Advice for people transitioning to UX design from another career. [28:27] Bootcamps. [31:15] Future of UX Design & Recruitment. Visit thomasmorrell.com/podcast for full show notes and all other podcast information.

Today I'm joined by Shehab Ibrahim. Shehab was an intern at Prudential Financial towards the end of my tenure there.I was blown away by his passion, curiosity, and ability to talk to anyone at such a young age. I invited him on the show to talk to other students of design about his experiences with internships. Prudential Financial and Intuit. How to find them, lessons learned, and what to expect in your role as a UX intern.Shehab breaks down his experiences which seemed to vary pretty widely even in closely related organizations. It was a pleasure to speak with him and catch up on what's he's been up to. For any companies out there looking for a junior designer who happens to have some deep real-world experience working for two huge organizations and bringing impact through Design. Shehab is your guy.You can find him on LinkedInor at his Portfolio site.Show Highlights[6:49] The benefits of learning in a university setting.[9:21] Internships opening up to Bootcamp graduates.[10:02] Applying for internships.[11:10] Preconceived notions were wrong about internships.[18:10] Getting the first interview.[20:11] Take a chance and apply.[21:40] Internship recruiting season.[24:28] The process of landing an internship.[26:48] A typical day in the life of a UX intern.[33:27] Differentiating yourself from other candidates.[37:25] Lessons learned from two internship experiences.

Today, I'm speaking with Carlos Lastres, a Creative Director, Designer, Digital Nomad living and working in Shenzen, China. Carlos's mission is to change the world‍through creative thinking, innovative marketing & exceptional design. Show Highlights[1:01] Carlos's Story[3:37] The speed of development working in China[6:20] His journey from Developer to UX Designer[8:01] His dislike for the word freelance[9:40] Encouraging designers to fail and learn through failing[14:28] Creating a design portfolio with personality[16:30] Dealing with time zones as an international design consultant[18:31] The challenges of being an expat in China[22:00] Following your fulfillment and not your passion[23:18] Your job as a junior designer is to find a job[24:00] The life of a traveling designer[25:00] Finding growth by always being out of your comfort zone[28:00] Always share your design and your ideas. It's the best way to learnConnect with CarlosLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carloslastres/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clastresdesign/Website: lastrescarlos.com. . .If you haven't already, please subscribe to User Flows on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else you listen to podcasts. If you prefer video, you can watch it on the UserFlows YouTube channel. Share this episode with friends and family or anyone you know who's interested in UX design. If you'd really like to help me out, you can visit, thomasmorrell.com/survey to let me know what you'd like to learn on the show or you're more or less.

Welcome back to User Flows, everyone. This is a show where we talk about User Experience Design and Careers and I get to interview designers who inspire me about how they got started in the field so I can break down the patterns or best practices that you can use in your own career. Today, I'm speaking with Viet Hoang. Viet has been a UX Researcher/Designer for 8+ years. In my experience working with him, he has shown an absolute comprehensive understanding of human behavior and psychology as it relates to both digital and physical experiences. Viet has worked with numerous clients in various industries, from fintech to food services giving him a broad perspective on users' needs and motivations. I was really excited to connect with Viet again on the podcast and outside of work. He's an incredibly thoughtful person and extremely inquisitive. I think you’ll enjoy this one! Show Highlights The differentiating skill of communication [4:20] How he got started in UX Design [15:30] How sales can help your career as a designer [20:00] The most important aspects of your role as a designer [22:36] Advice for Designers getting into the field [29:00] View all the show notes at thomasmorrell.com

Welcome back to the UserFlows Podcast, my name is Thomas Morrell and this is a show where we talk about UX design and careers. I interview designers about their journey into the field and break down how they've been successful in their roles so we all can learn together. Today I'm joined by Jeffrey Paul Coleman, a UX Community Builder. Jeffrey is working to make tech more inclusive by supporting the growth of the UX Research community in Europe (via UXinsight) and advocating for recent grads, immigrants, and career changers via the online boot camp CareerFoundry. He is also working on a small Training Program in NYC called DesignWorks. Whew! that sounds like a lot, but Jeffrey breaks down how he handles all this in roughly a 30-hour workweek. Jeffrey is predominately focusing on empowering others (mostly in UX) to navigate tricky moments in their career because he believes if we each receive the support we need (even when we are further along professionally), then we can focus on what counts. Growing as people within existing and new communities can lead to a more equitable work environment for all.Show HighlightsTalking to more people [13:30 - 14:28]UX Career Possibilities [22:00 - 26:15]What does a UX community builder do? [26:30 - 30:55]Bootcamps [31:20 - 34:25]Soft Skills [34:30 - 38:03]Navigating Tricky Career Situations [38:10 - 41:41]Show LinksAttend UXinsight Unfolds: making research more inclusive, happening on Thurs, Nov 11thSubscribe to The Bridge, a newsletter Jeffrey has been writing for a year every two weeksJeffrey Paul Coleman on LinkedIn

Today I’m speaking with Mariyam Elshrief a UX Designer at ServiceChannel in San Francisco, CA. I first met Mariyam when I interviewed her for a role at Prudential Financial. She was incredibly smart, able to think on her feet, and one of the best interviews I can remember having. That’s why I brought her on the show. At the time in her career, she didn’t have a ton of experience. What she lacked in professional experience though she made up for in curiosity and a ton of hackathons and personal projects that really showed a scope of knowledge far beyond her years of employment. In this episode Mariyam shares her origin story, switching from a computer science degree to UX Design [5:45]. Her time as a boot camp student at General Assembly [3:00]. Her interviewing preparation tactics [10:30], hackathons [8:50], portfolios [15:00], advice for younger designers [18:50]. But most importantly her journey from UX mentee looking for a career to UX mentor guiding others in their own journey [21:29]. It’s a great story and I hope you enjoy it. Show Links Mariyam on LinkedIn If you haven't already, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else you listen to podcasts. If you prefer video, you can watch on the UserFlows YouTube channel. Share this episode with friends and family or anyone you know who's interested in UX design. Connect with me on LinkedIn or Instagram. If you have questions, need career advice, or just want to chat. I'm open to DMs and around to answer any and all questions.

Welcome back to the UserFlows Podcast, my name is Thomas Morrell and this is a show where we talk about UX design and careers. I interview designers about their journey into the field and break down how they've been successful in their roles so we all can all learn together.Today I'm joined by Ellie Millen. Ellie is a UX Design & Research Leader, empathy advocate in products, mentorship, and life!I first met Ellie on a job interview. The role didn't end up being a good fit, but I really enjoyed my conversation with Ellie then and had been looking to reconnect. That is the power of LinkedIn and being open to connecting with new people. Never forget someone you met in the field, as one day you could very well connect and collaborate in the future.I was so happy to invite Ellie onto the show. She shares what she's currently up to which is actually taking a well-needed and well-deserved career break all the way up in her hometown of Anchorage, Alaska. I love this. So many of us, myself included never really take a break to think through or discover what it truly is we want to do next. We just march along from one engagement to another with the sole goal of being employed as the driving force behind our actions. So I applaud her for taking the time to reflect, regroup and come back recharged hopefully aimed at the target of her choosing.Since I knew Ellie was heavily involved in UX interviewing in her previous roles I ask her to discuss any specific interview pitfalls she sees designers make and she gets into how many junior UX designers try to over please by pretending to be the designer they think the interviewer is looking for instead of themselves. She gives some advice on not being afraid to specialize. (Listen at 5:30 for more).She also discusses positive interview skills she's seen like tying past experiences to the current role to leverage related experience to the job you're looking for (Listen at 7:30 for more).We get into some basics of UX Research and a “for instance” on what type of research practices to use as a new designer on a team taking over a fresh project. (Listen at 9:12 for that). I really like what she had to say about cultivating a sense of why and I used that for the title of this show. She has some top-notch advice for junior UX designers at 17:21 and 31:30Ellie dives into advice for new managers along with another “for instance” of taking over a team as a new manager at 22:20. I love her advice of listening before you do anything else and approaching management the same way you would approach any UX project.I hope you enjoy the show.Ellie on LinkedInEllie’s WebsiteIf you haven't already, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else you listen to podcasts. Share this episode with friends and family or anyone you know who's interested in UX design. Connect with me on LinkedIn or Instagram. If you have questions, need career advice, or just want to chat. I'm open to DMs and around to answer any and all questions.Connect with me on LinkedIn.Connect with me on Instagram.

Welcome back to UserFlows Podcast on July 20, my name is Thomas Morrell and I'll be your host. This is a show where we talk UX Design and Careers. I interview other designers about their journey into the field of User Experience Design and how they've thrived in their roles. Share some tips and information you can use to advance your own career in the field.Today, I'm speaking with a past colleague, friend, and all-around amazing person. Caryn Gallis is a Director of Experience Design specializing in Culture & Training. Caryn is also a professor of design at Keen University in New Jersey. I first met Caryn in my first week working at Prudential Financial. A big project I was hired for hadn't kicked off yet, but Caryn and UserFlows podcast guest Brian Evans from episode #2 were working on putting together a training deck for the team at Prudential on how to Facilitate Design Sprints. They presented me with the idea of creating a fake project in order to use as the training material source. It was a really fun project and ultimately an amazing way for me to be introduced to Design Sprints. An activity I use often in my own design process now.For those of you who don't know, Design Sprints are a fantastic 3 - 5 day design workshop meant to take a companies ideas from zero to prototype within a very short timeframe. They are highly collaborative, fast-paced and are a great way of getting ideas in front of your audience without spending months or years building the wrong product first. They were started by ex-Google Ventures member Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky, and Braden Kowitz. They made their findings into a fantastic book. “Design Sprints, How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days”. For all the hype around design sprints, at least from my perspective, the hype is well deserved.Since helping Brian and Caryn create the training material for sprinting at Prudential. I was fortunate enough to go through their training program and facilitate six design sprints while at Prudential. All were hugely beneficial to the projects I was working on and a transformational moment in my own career. Having tools like this to help your team navigate through or break up continuous cycles of non-decision are a fantastic way to help your team push past where so many others get stuck.Caryn is an integrative thinker who thrives on solving the big picture while remaining focused on relevant details through every stage of the assignment. She seeks to understand the user's needs while keeping the business goals in alignment.Caryn and I discuss her career and transition from designing children's toys to UX design. What are design sprints? When to use a design sprint and possibly more importantly when not to use a design sprint. She'll take us through her process of selling Design Sprints in a large enterprise organization and how she went from a comment in an interview to scaling design sprint training to well over 500 members of her organization.She shares some great tips around keeping a Design Sprint best practices wiki. Connecting with the decider of your sprint beforehand in order to ground them in their role. She also shares some great tips and advice for new designers looking to get into the field.If you are new to the show or if you haven't already. Please subscribe to User Flows wherever you listen to Podcasts. Share this show or any of the others with your audience, friends, family, or anyone you know who's interested in a career in the field.Thank you so much for listening or reading :) and I hope you enjoy the show.TM

Welcome back to the UserFlows Podcast. A show where we talk about UX Design and Careers. I’m your host Thomas Morrell and I get to interview other designers about their journey’s into the field of UX and Product Design. Today I am speaking with Sam Harper, a former filmmaker and marine biologist turned passionate user experience designer, published Medium author, and frequent contributor to the UX Collective blog. Sam is also a UX career coach with some pretty great experience.I was first introduced to Sam through his LinkedIn live shows. I found him extremely intriguing and I love how open, honest and helpful he has been for the UX community. Especially those just getting started in the field.You can read Sam’s articles on Medium or join his biweekly live stream calls on LinkedIn.Books and Articles we talked about on the showWhat Color is Your Parachute?Jobs To Be Done2021 Edition: Your UX Boot Camp Will NOT Get You A Job: Unless You Do These Critically Important StepsArticle I couldn’t remember on the show :)Lost your UX job during COVID? Look at the opportunities it presents

Steven Cohn is a father, husband, and serial entrepreneur and he tries hard to be great in all those areas. I can relate to that as I'm the father of two as well and husband to my wonderful wife of 10 years. I do hope to be an entrepreneur again in the future. Which is why I'm talking to Steven today. He has a marvelous track record of starting and selling fantastic digital companies. For those of you in the UX space, many will know his venture, Validately which made it easy and affordable to conduct lean customer research on new digital products. Validately has since been acquired by UserZoom. Prior to launching Validately, Steven sold his first two startups to LivingSocial and TripAdvisor. He has also worked at DoubleClick, Quantcast, and IBM. He is a graduate of George Washington University and Harvard Business School. I'm convinced that every designer dreams of starting their own product one day. I will not be shy about saying that I have this dream. So one of the great things about starting a podcast is that you get to talk to really cool people who do the things you want to do. So I'm really excited to talk to Steven today as he's 3 for 3 in creating useful, successful, and profitable products. Steven is going for his fourth startup success with his latest and greatest company, ImpactProduct [http://www.impactproduct.com/](http://www.impactproduct.com/). ImpactProduct helps designers and product people alike make data-informed design decisions. Uncover usability issues faster. All without developer support. The entire tool is offered as a chrome extension. I installed it on my personal site. It took all of seconds to install and seems super easy to use thus far. Follow Steven on Twitter @spcohn or learn more about him on LinkedIn. [https://twitter.com/spcohn?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author](https://twitter.com/spcohn?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor)[https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevencohn/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevencohn/) Here is a list of people and products we discuss in the show: Impact Product [http://www.impactproduct.com/](http://www.impactproduct.com/) Jeff Gothelf [https://jeffgothelf.com/](https://jeffgothelf.com/) Joshua Seiden [https://www.joshuaseiden.com/](https://www.joshuaseiden.com/) Becky Buck of Forge Studio [https://www.forge.is/](https://www.forge.is/) The Lean Product Playbook [https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Product-Playbook-Innovate-Products/dp/1118960874/ref=asc_df_1118960874/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312111907622&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2775476271997045487&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9011294&hvtargid=pla-434197569733&psc=1](https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Product-Playbook-Innovate-Products/dp/1118960874/ref=asc_df_1118960874/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312111907622&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2775476271997045487&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9011294&hvtargid=pla-434197569733&psc=1) Outcomes Over Output [https://www.amazon.com/Outcomes-Over-Output-customer-behavior/dp/1091173265/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2M5H1WU137AKR&dchild=1&keywords=joshua+seiden&qid=1624023544&sprefix=joshua+seiden%2Cstripbooks%2C163&sr=8-3](https://www.amazon.com/Outcomes-Over-Output-customer-behavior/dp/1091173265/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2M5H1WU137AKR&dchild=1&keywords=joshua+seiden&qid=1624023544&sprefix=joshua+seiden%2Cstripbooks%2C163&sr=8-3) Price Intelligently [https://www.priceintelligently.com/blog](https://www.priceintelligently.com/blog) If you haven't already, please subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else you listen to podcasts. I'll be releasing a show about every other week or so. If you'd like to be a friend to the show. Leaving a review and comment on Apple would be very much appreciated. Share a link to this show with your friends and anyone else you know who's interested in UX design. Feel free to recommend topics you'd like to hear discussed and if you have any questions about Design, Design Careers, or anything else for that matter, you can DM me on Instagram @userflows.live Now let's go create!

Hello and welcome back to the UserFlows Podcast. UserFlows is a show where we talk about UX Design and UX Careers. You should listen to this show if... You are a student of user experience or product design. You are a professional who is considering a transition to the field or if you're just someone who's interested in UX design and wants to learn a bit more about it. In each episode, I'll interview a successful, working designer in order to discover how they found the field and have managed to thrive in this highly competitive landscape. We'll break down the steps they took in order to land their first jobs, dive into the mistakes they've made while building their careers, and hopefully teach a bit about the processes, tools, and best practices that have helped them in their own design journey. If you haven't already, please subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify or anywhere else you listen to podcasts. I'll be releasing a show about every other week or so. If you'd like to be a friend to the show. Leaving a review and comment on iTunes would be very much appreciated. Share a link to this show with your friends and those interested in UX design. Feel free to recommend topics you'd like to hear discussed and if you have any questions about Design, Design Careers, or anything else for that matter, you can DM me on Instagram @userflows.live. Today I'm speaking with Ty Fujimura, CEO of Cantilever Web Design and Development. Ty is an extremely thoughtful designer and design leader. His career purpose (I mean, look at that, he actually has a career purpose) is to unite creativity and business. Cantilever is a mission-driven company and its mission is to harness the power of “Digital Hospitality". A term I absolutely love, it means they believe websites are spaces that users inhabit, not billboards they see from a distance. Ty is currently focused on building a great environment for Cantilever’s staff to thrive and deliver outstanding results for their clients. In our conversation, we dive a little bit deeper into what Digital Hospitality means to Ty, his team, and their clients. Cantilever is a remote-first team so we talk a bit about remote working best practices for the rest of us just toying at remote working. How to make time to let designers design and some of his thoughts around building a successful design culture. I can not thank Ty enough for sharing his time and ideas. If you'd like to learn more about Ty and Cantilever. You can connect with Ty on Twitter @tyfuji or by visiting cantilever.co. If you're a soccer fan, Ty also hosts a fantastic podcast We The Peeps focused on US Soccer, USMNT the World Cup and is an irreverent take on US Soccer. USMNT Gold Cup, CONCACAF Nations League, and World Cup Qualifying. Give it a listen. TM

Howdy and Hello! Welcome back to the UserFlows Podcast. My name is Thomas Morrell and I'll be your host. It's been a couple of weeks since we last spoke. In the last episode we got to speak with someone totally fresh to the industry, right out of the UX boot camp, and this week we get to speak with someone with a number of years of experience. So I think this will give us a really well-rounded view of interviewing for UX design roles both from the interviewee and the interviewer perspectives. You can go back and listen to the last episode where I interview freelance UX/UI designer Ivan Crego where he talks about landing his first UX role. That is episode 5. This week we'll be speaking with Mike Reed. Mike is now Principle UX designer for a company called Infromatica in Ontario, Canada.Mike is an experienced product designer (UX/UI) and manager who has led numerous successful consumer apps, eCommerce platforms, SaaS products, and analytics and management consultant tools to market - with proven business results.Mike provides leadership, guidance, and insights for large-scale platform changes and long-term product decisions and strategies. Mike has implemented human-centered design processes, UI change management processes and tracking, business-driven quantitative testing, product acceleration sessions, and more.Show Links:Mike Reed website: https://www.mikeuxportfolio.com/Mike Reed LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-reed-62a4157/Informatica: https://www.informatica.com/Davy Wreck on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4h38ZRI4BD2RiWHsKnDBXx?si=jeY72NhMRACGPpSa9k08UADay Wreck Designer Music Playlist: https://soundcloud.com/sevenpercent/sets/designer-musicWant to learn UX design? I could be your mentor at Springboard.com https://www.springboard.com/invite/UP2DN

Hello and welcome back to the UserFlows Podcast. My name is Thomas Morrell and I'll be your host. It's been a crazy month for myself and my family. We packed up and sold our home in New Jersey and moved to Savannah, GA. We've been debating this move for many years, so we've finally pulled the trigger. It's been a dream so far, but of course, it's still the honeymoon phase. Continuing the podcast throughout the move though. We'll be bouncing around from rental to rental as we build our dream home on the coast here.A little update of the podcast for those of you who continue to listen. We have listeners. This is really exciting and I can't thank you all enough. Of course, it's not thousands, but it is in the hundreds which for me is really exciting. I started this podcast to help those of you who may be considering the journey or career transition into the field of UX design. I did this not only to help people grow and learn but also selfishly to help myself grow and learn and my gosh it's been quite a learning curve. I had a slight snafu with recording this podcast so you'll notice the audio is a little off, but that's the only way to learn, isn't it. Trial and error.Thank you all so much for continuing to listen. If you'd like to be a friend to the show, please share this with anyone you know who may be interested in the field of UX design. Subscribe and leave a rating on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere you listen to podcasts. If you have any specific topics you'd like to discuss or hear discussed. Feel free to reach out with any topic requests, questions, or ideas. I'm all ears and I'm here for you.Very excited for this episode, today you'll be listening to a conversation I had with Freelance UX/UI designer Ivan Crego. Ivan recently started his career after attending a UX boot camp offered through Career Foundry. Previously, Ivan had an amazing job as a University Recruiter for the New Jersey Institute of Technology where he got paid to travel the world. Nice work if you can get it, huh!After the realities of Covid set in, Ivan realized he would need to look into a new career. Luckily a friend introduced him to UX design and got him pointed in the right direction. A big shout out to Brian Evans for introducing me to Ivan. You can listen to my conversation with Brian in UserFlows Episode 2.Ivan and I talk about a number of his experiences throughout his journey to becoming a UX designer and for those of you considering that same journey. I think you'll find what he has to share enlightening. I hope you enjoy it.Find all show links below:New Jersey Institute of Technology: https://www.njit.edu/Career Foundry: https://careerfoundry.com/Springboard: https://www.springboard.com/General Assembly: https://generalassemb.ly/Brian Evans Interview: https://redcircle.com/shows/6fe0183f-8c8b-48f3-9e04-6675912c267e/episodes/62eca4c3-6d8e-42cc-97ba-07ac2e4fd6e4If you'd like to connect with Ivan, you can find him here: linkedin.com/ivancrego or ivancregodesign.comIf you'd like to be a friend of the show, please remember to share this with anyone you know interested in User Experience design. Like, share, comment, etc... on all the social media channels. You can find me on Instagram @userflows.liveYou can message me at linkedin.com/morrellthomasIf you've enjoyed this show, a five-star rating, comment on Spotify or Apple podcasts would go a long, long way.Thank you and I hope you enjoy the conversation.TM

Before you dive into anything. It's important to define what it REALLY is, what it means to you, and what it means to the people it will affect. I dove into this question "What is UX design? Really?" about 10 years ago. "What is UX design?" is a question I’ve been asked a lot of times in job interviews, from family members, and from prospective clients. If it is a field you wish to participate in as well. It will be essential for you to establish an answer in your own words that means something to you and translates easily enough to the listener. Wikipedia explains it as: "User experience design (UXD, UED, or XD) is the process of supporting user behavior through usability, usefulness, and desirability provided in the interaction with a product. User experience design encompasses traditional human–computer interaction (HCI) design and extends it by addressing all aspects of a product or service as perceived by users." Don Norman who coined the term User Experience in 1993 while working at apple Defines it this way: "'User experience'" encompasses all aspects of the end-users interaction with the company, its services, and its products." You can also hear him talk about it in this quick video. In my humble opinion I define UX design in a couple ways: From the perspective of the designer. UX design is the iterative refinement of a product or service to bring value to a user. It focuses on the desirability, feasibility and usability of a product. From the perspective of the user. UX is the perception I have when using a product or service. Do I find it useful, desirable and can it be implemented easily into my life? When I boil it down, this is what I come up with. Essentially to me, UX design is about improving the human experience. Even it means you're just making someone’s day that much easier. It balances organizational objectives with human nature and needs. If your intent is to improve someone’s experience and you can achieve that, your organization could be successful. If you don't improve someone’s experience, then it will probably fail. Therefore I now define UX design as: The iterative design of digital products and services to improve human interaction. So what does a UX designer do all day? A big disclaimer to this one. Not every designer works the same, has the same responsibilities or roles to fill. This can look different depending on who you are, where your focus lies, and what your company, team, or clients expect from you. Also, it has a lot to do with the individual designer, where their strengths are, where they tend to focus their attention and how their team divides responsibilities. Designing Yes! A good portion of your day will be spent heads down in Sketch, InVision, XD, Figma, or any other prototyping tool you choose to use. This can be high-fidelity designs or low, but you should be prototyping and learning almost every day. You should be prototyping and learning almost every day. By prototyping, I mean creating mock-ups that are as close to an interactive experience as possible. This allows not only the designer but the rest of the team as well to interact with an experience like an app that's similar to what it would be like for a customer to use the actual product. By learning, I mean using the prototype to test with the business team to ensure it meets requirements. Test with the development team to ensure the feasibility of building this design and test with the folks who in the end will be using the app to make sure it's actually something they'll want to use. Strategic Thinking Designers need to help the business connect with users to gain insights into their needs and wants. This is an essential part of the designer's role. Also helping them develop the requirements of what you will be building is a good skill set to acquire. The designer's role in this phase is to really connect with the business team to build trust and establish goals, vision, and the desired outcome the team will be driving towards. Actual day-to-day work may include crafting and participating in user or customer interviews. Analyzing customer pain points and highlighting opportunities. Crafting competitive research, creating user personas, collecting inspiration, journey map creation and again, the list goes on. The important part is that you and the team are forming a bond and a connection around who your customer is, what your strategy is to help them, plus how and on what time frame you'll do it in. Divergent Thinking Ideating, iterating, and collaborating are key to this phase. Design, Test, Repeat! You'll be sketching, wire-framing, card-sorting, plotting the Information Architecture, prototyping, testing, etc..., etc... So you've helped the team gather enough information to know who your customer is and roughly how you'll go about helping them. Now it's time for the pen to hit the paper. Or marker to hit whiteboard, or sharpie to hit post it or mouse to click the screen. You get the point, now is the time to generate as many ideas as possible. Now could be a great time to walk the team through an idea-generating workshop. Convergent Thinking Developers need your final typography, spacing, grids, icons, and artwork ready to go. Also, you'll need to work closely with the product team to design for almost every imaginable scenario a user may encounter while using your app. So a designer needs to be good and fast at whichever design tool they'll be using. It's incredible how much time can be spent designing error states and messages to help your user when things break down. Get faster so it doesn't break you down. Facilitating and participating in workshops There are meetings, lots of meetings. Workshops are better, and if you can't get that. A meeting with a purpose and action will have to do. As a designer, you have to present you're work a lot! Designers need to get comfortable facilitating activities and presentations that don't suck. Typical? So as you can see. A typical day as a UX designer is not very typical at all. It is fun though 😉 What's your favorite part of the day?

So excited to connect with an old colleague Evan Tyerman. Evan is the Director of Design Operations at Prudential Financial and an all-around great human. Evan has a very interesting background that led him to User Experience Design. Previously he was in the biomedical engineering field, Evan has always been passionate about helping people. His background in engineering drives him to discover the unknown, while his empathy and compassion in helping people helps him to understand the wonder of people. Ultimately, his understanding of users, along with his creativity, inspires Evan to create experiences to change the world. To Evan, User Experience is more than a job or a skill set; it is a passion. Evan and I talk about his experience in discovering UX design, telling his parents he was leaving the Biomedical Engineering field. How passion fuels a great designer and his experience with General Assembly. I'm very excited for Evan and his new role and I can't wait to share his story with you. You can connect with Evan at https://www.linkedin.com/in/evantyerman/

Brian Evans is a resident and worker in the flourishing downtown of Newark, NJ. Receiving a B.S. in Human-Computer Interaction from NJIT he has quickly become a defender of the user, advocate for the differently-abled, and destroyer of churn and red tape. Passionate about designing experiences to help people get control of their financial lives. He holds a CPACC certification from the IAAP, yay acronyms! This means he finds web accessibility to be an important part of his profession. His hobbies include woodworking and writing quirky bios.I worked with Brian at Prudential Financial for a few years and it was originally a conversation I had with Brian which led me to start this podcast. So I was super excited when he agreed to be the first interview guest on the show. I have to thank Brian as well for being such a trooper as we ran into a number of technical issues and even lost a small snippet of the recording. Thanks, Brian!Brian currently works at https://www.incedoinc.com/Brian discovered and was turned on to UX design from Code for America. https://www.codeforamerica.org/Brian and I talk a lot about web accessibility. I love his line about "Accessibility really comes down to decency". I asked Brian about accessibility specifically because he was my go-to resource when we worked together for all accessibility-related questions as he always had the right answer.Some links to further your Accessibility education:Deque Accessibility Training. https://www.deque.com/training/Web Aim. https://webaim.org/IAAP. https://www.accessibilityassociation.org/Brian's Inspirations:Jared Spool. https://www.uie.com/Whitney Quesenbery. https://civicdesign.org/about/our-team/Educating Yourself:Center Centre. https://www.centercentre.com/Just some bears brewing bears.Bear Party Brewing. https://www.instagram.com/bearpartybrewing/?hl=enBrian and some of his friends have been brewing beer to keep active during this pandemic. I got the oppotunity to sample some and it was delicious. Pockets and Polar bear plunge were my favorites. Follow them on Instagram.Catch up with Brian:LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianevansux/Twitter. https://twitter.com/briana11yWebsite. https://bevans.design/Podcast Music:My podcast music was created by Davy Wreck. David is a student of mine at Springboard.com, but he also happens to be an amazing musician, artist, and dancer. I can't thank him enough for making this track for me. You can follow Davy on Spotify or you can listen to some of his Designer related playlists on Soundcloud. https://soundcloud.com/sevenpercent/sets

Hello and welcome to the UserFlows podcast. I'll be your host Thomas Morrell, I am a father, husband, and designer. Thanks for joining me on this journey. I'm creating this podcast to be a place for us to discuss User Experience Design, getting started as a UX/Product Designer, and how someone would make the transition from their current field to the field of UX design. So I want UserFlows to be a place for those interested in UX design to learn more about the field and hopefully help someone find their first job in UX or help someone already working in the field to hone their skills a little bit more. The reason I want to talk about this topic, in particular, is because this is exactly what I did. I transitioned from a career in Graphic Design/Visual Design which is fairly closely related. I've seen a number of other designers fail to make the switch or show interest in making the switch, but never quite get there. They may not have been sure where to start, intimidated, or any other list of reasons. So hopefully this podcast will give you some guidance on where to start, what's truly important to know and to learn, and what's going to advance your career the quickest. Links from the show: Adobe: [Hiring Trends in UX Design: The 6 Things You Need to Know About Tech’s Fastest Growing Field](https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2017/02/03/hiring-trends-in-ux-design-the-6-things-you-need-to-know-about-techs-fastest-growing-field.html#gs.t6nxh2) Cella: [2021 Creative, Marketing And Digital Salary Guide](https://www.cellainc.com/insights/salary-guides/?utm_source=cellawebsite&utm_medium=cellahomepage&utm_campaign=salaryguide_2021&utm_content=homepageoffer) Coursera HCI Course: [Interaction Design Specialization](https://www.coursera.org/specializations/interaction-design?action=enroll) Your Host: [https://www.instagram.com/userflows.live/](https://www.instagram.com/userflows.live/) [https://www.thomasmorrell.com/](https://www.thomasmorrell.com/) [https://www.linkedin.com/in/morrellthomas/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/morrellthomas/)